Health and Safety Commission (HSC) Chair, Judith Hackitt, spent the day with a group of 10 and 11 year-olds from Staple Hill Primary School, Page Road, Bristol, at the Lifeskills - Learning for Living training centre (which is based at The Create Centre, Smeaton Road, Bristol). The HSC Chair was in Bristol to see how the youngsters were taught valuable lessons in 'sensible risk' management and to reiterate her message to combat the growing perception of a 'cotton-wool' culture in today's society.

The Lifeskills centre is a permanent regional interactive safety education and training facility which has been modelled on a 'realistic' village. The village has a number of potential hazards including a road, an electricity substation, a building site and a farm.

Commenting on her visit, Judith Hackitt said:

"The Lifeskills centre is an ideal environment for children learn about risks through educational activities and play. What I have seen today are fantastic opportunities that can help children learn important life skills, including handling the type of risks they are faced with themselves. Life can never be risk free, we know that. We can't eliminate risk altogether and we want people - and especially children - to continue to enjoy important recreational and learning activities. Children should learn to identify hazards and handle risks. Growing up in cotton wool runs the risk of a generation who are completely unaware of the risks around them, leaving themselves and others very much exposed."

HSE launched its sensible risk campaign to encourage a simple and practical approach to risk assessment, encouraging people to enjoy daily and leisure activities, managing risk responsibly.

More information can be found here.

Notes

1. The HSE launched a set of key principles on sensible risk management in August 2006, to help people focus on real risks. This followed a series of stories about alleged 'health and safety' stopping people taking part in leisure activities etc. The campaign established 10 principles of sensible risk management - see website for details.Also, as part of the campaign, HSE launched the 'myth of the month' cartoon - see hse/myth

2. Lifeskills centre - further information from the website lifeskills-bristol/index.htm

3. Lifeskills' partner organisations provide messages used by the centre to educate visiting children. These include Bath and North East Somerset Council, Food Standards Agency, British Transport Police and RoSPA.

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